What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust

 

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust / Alan Bradley
TO: Doubleday Canada, c2024.
288 p.

After a gap of about 5 years, a new Flavia de Luce book is here. I've read this whole series since the beginning and have really enjoyed it. From Flavia herself, to her sisters and Dogger and all the side characters, I've always looked forward to going back to this world. 

Here Flavia is a tiny bit older; she's now stuck with looking after her noxious cousin Undine, who is like an exaggerated annoyance, a vision of what Flavia might have been to others earlier in her life. But Flavia is starting to feel some adult responsibility, even while she's still eager to be on a case and beat the local police to the solution of any murders happening around Buckshaw. 

This time poor Mrs. Mullet, long-suffering cook for the De Luce family, is suspected of murder when a local man drops dead from mushroom poisoning. Flavia gets right on that and is able to easily prove Mrs. Mullet couldn't have done it -- but this draws her into a much larger plot that she could never have foreseen.

With ties to the local American army base, Flavia's family connections, and long held secrets, this mystery is unexpected and a bit convoluted. It is connected to the family secrets revealed in the last few books, but if you read those some years ago you may need a bit of a refresher to get all the hints here. 

I will never say no to another book about the wonderful Flavia, but this one wasn't the strongest one in the series. It was still a delight to visit Flavia and Dogger again, but after the previous book was said to be the series finale, I was imagining a big gap of years and having Flavia as a 25 year old sleuth instead of there being a gap of only months. I'm not sure she will be able to turn into a teenager and grow out of her precocious obsessions with crime and chemistry smoothly in the years ahead! 

But if you're looking for a fun mystery, this could be it. If you're a Flavia fan, I don't need to convince you. If you haven't yet tried this series, begin at the beginning for the full effect. Enjoy!